According to the international research firm IDC's ?Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast?, global spending on online advertisement is expected to be around $65.2 billion in 2008. In addition, the company envisages a 15 to 20 per cent escalation in online advertisement spending every year till 2011, when the figure is likely to touch the $106.6 billion mark.



Offering details of the research findings, IDC has predicted that of all advertisements in all kinds of media, online advertisement spending share will be around 10 per cent during 2008 and will account for as much as 13.6 per cent in the next three years. The company further said that the Western European companies would emerge the biggest spenders on online advertisements as almost 20 per cent of them will opt for this mode of promotion by 2011.

Substantiating the research findings, IDC chief research officer John Gantz said in a recent report that the inequality among per-capita expenditure is enough evidence of the enduring prospects for online advertising. According to Gantz, "The total advertising revenues relate to over $105 per inhabitant of the planet, while Internet advertising revenues are less than $50 per active Internet user."

Last May, investment bank Credit Suisse had cut on its global online advertisement expenditure assessment and had projected a humble growth rate in total ad costs for the next two years. According to the company, the US as well as other developing nations would tend to bring down the growth rate, while the developing countries would witness exceptional escalation in online advertisement spending.

Significantly enough, projections by IDC as well as Credit Suisse of the advertisement spending on the Internet vis-?-vis the total ad spending were quite identical ? 10 per cent during 2007 and 12 per cent in 2008.

On the other hand, a report issued by Bernstein Research in May estimated that the online advertisement spending would be 9.4 per cent of the total ad expenditure during 2008 and it would go up to 13.1 per cent by 2012.

From the above facts it is amply clear that the rising ratio of expenditure on online ads vis-?-vis the total spending on advertisements will definitely facilitate the dollars spent by website owners and marketers on promotions on the Internet to go up.

Meanwhile, David Hallerman, senior analyst of eMarketer, has underlined specific reasons that will aid an uninterrupted escalation in online advertisement spending in the US as well as elsewhere. His notes include:

? Online advertisements are becoming more alluring to the marketers as they find them more computable when compared with other media.

? Spending on online advertisements will increase as compared to other media, the Internet audience is vast.

? Prices of Internet ads are on the up owing to the advent of new techniques like targeting and others and this is bound to hike the online advertising spending.

Hallerman observes that though online advertisement spending in the US is not resistant to the current economic slowdown, the affects of this regression are more likely to hit the display ads than the paid search advertisement. He further says that despite the economic slowdown brand marketers are still attracted to display ads like video and this is a sure sign of the advertisement spending shifting from the conventional channels to the Internet.